Joaquin Almunia, the EC commissioner in charge of competition
European Commission

European regulators have begun scrutinizing whether Samsung was fair in matters concerning the overlap of standards and patents, the latest development in a global legal battle with Apple over smartphone technology.

Lawsuit watcher Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents spotted the move in an Apple court filing. The Apple filing said, "Samsung's litigation campaign and other conduct related to its declared-essential patents is so egregious that the European Commission recently has opened an investigation to determine whether Samsung's behavior violates EU competition laws."

And the EC confirmed the move in a statement to CNET: "The Commission has indeed sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector," said Marisa González Iglesias, a spokeswoman for the European Commission's competition regulation division. "Such requests for information are standard procedure in antitrust investigations to allow the commission to establish the relevant facts in a case."

Related Links

Samsung didn't immediately comment. But in a statement to the Dutch publication Webwereld, Samsung said it's cooperating with the authorities, that it's committed to fair and reasonable licensing terms, and that the EC is involved in a preliminary investigation, not full investigation.

Patents and standards don't always get along comfortably. One company can license its patents to another or not as it sees fit, but when those patents are involved in an industry standard the patent holder helped to create, they typically must be offered under reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms--even to rivals.

About the author

Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
See full bio